News Feature

Croatian island link 'may be restored'

09 October 2008

A request has been made by the mayor of Korcula, a Croatian island, to re-establish a link with the Scottish island of Bute, it has been reported.

It has been suggested a representative from Argyll and Bute council will fly to Korcula in the next few months to discuss the association, the Buteman reports.

The original link was made by Sir Fitzroy MacLean when he was selected by Winston Churchill to lead a mission in 1943 against the Germans on the island.

Sir MacLean was granted permission to buy a house on Korcula and was later elected as a member of parliament for Bute and North Ayrshire in 1959, the source says.

Korcula is 46.8 kilometres long and 7.8 kilometres wide and its population was estimated to be 16,182 when a census was taken in 2001.

The main industries on the island, situated off the Dalmatian coast, are tourism and agriculture and the country trades in wine, olives and fruit.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Adam Ruck recently said a night at a traditional Moreska dance on the island made the challenging cycling he had engaged in around the area worth it. ADNFCR-1197-ID-18819735-ADNFCR